The Alamance County Board of Commissioners approved incentives on Monday for Kayser-Roth Corporation to be used towards an expansion plan for its Burlington location creating 50 new full-time jobs.

Alamance County ’s incentive contribution will be $360,000 paid over five years in installments of $72,000. This incentive is based upon the initial new taxable valuation increase of building and equipment of $18 million, according to County Manager Craig Honeycutt.

The Burlington City Council will consider an incentive request tonight from Kayser-Roth for the same expansion plan. City Manager Harold Owen said earlier this month that the city could provide an incentive equal to 2 percent of the company’s total new taxable investments.

The county commissioners approved Kayser-Roth’s incentive request 4 to 1.

Commissioners Linda Massey, Tom Manning, David Smith and Bill Lashley voted to approve the incentive request. Commissioner Tim Sutton voted against providing incentives. The vote was taken after a public hearing.

Sammy Moser of Burlington was among those who spoke out against the county providing Kayser-Roth with incentives to expand its business. Moser said he believed the incentive package was unfair to all those in Alamance County.

Moser asked the commissioners how many more years the county would continue to provide companies with incentives to grow business and whether there was a better way of attracting economic growth without providing incentives.

“Do we have to keep giving out money to corporations?” Moser said.

During the meeting, Kayser-Roth Chief Financial Officer Todd Howard provided more details of the expansion plan. Howard said the expansion would allow the Burlington location to produce 12 million additional pairs of socks annually increasing production by 30 percent. The expansion would take place on the western side of the existing plant.

The projected hourly wage for the new jobs would be $10.44 including benefits. Of the $18 million planned capital investment, $12 million would be invested for a building and land expansion with $6 million invested in machinery and equipment.

Honeycutt said the company’s investment would provide the county with $97,000 annually in additional tax revenues.

Lashley and Massey said providing incentives were a necessary part of attracting new business to the county.

“We just can’t turn them down just like that because we have always done this,” Massey said.

Sutton said he disagreed believing that governments had no business providing cash incentives for private companies to expand. Sutton also said he believed companies would likely expand or locate to Alamance County without receiving incentives.